Latest Press Releases

Smaato is the first exchange-side integration with adsquare, empowering the platform’s 450+ demand partners to reach hyper-relevant mobile audiences at the right moments

San Francisco, Calif. – July 18, 2017 – Smaato the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announced today the integration of a vast trove of mobile audience data into the Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) from adsquare, the neutral and transparent mobile data exchange. Through Smaato’s industry-first exchange-side integration with adsquare, Smaato’s 450+ mobile-first DSPs and demand partners connected to SDX can now leverage premium real-time audience targeting data to reach hyper-relevant audiences at the right mobile moments.

Smaato delivers up to 300 billion ad impressions to over one billion active mobile users worldwide each month. Smaato’s adsquare integration in SDX enriches these transactions with audience data from premium data providers, transforming billions of mobile users into multi-dimensional people with interests, behaviors and purchase intent that can be targeted with a high degree of precision in real time.

Using SDX’s custom-built, self-service interface, mobile advertisers can now choose from hundreds of high-value audience segments (e.g. moms in the United States, foodies in the United Kingdom, sports enthusiasts in Germany) through an easy-to-use interface. Once an audience segment is selected, mobile advertisers can create an SDX “Open Deal” – a Deal-ID-based line item specifically targeted to a selected audience. With this new Open Deal functionality, Smaato is giving DSPs and agencies more control by allowing them to set up targeting in SDX for both Open Auctions and Open Deals.

“Audience buying represents the future of mobile advertising, and Smaato is committed to empowering 450+ demand partners who transact daily on our exchange with more precise, reliable and efficient mobile targeting capabilities,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “The scale and depth of adsquare’s data is a perfect complement to the Smaato exchange, and we look forward to collaborating with adsquare to pioneer new solutions that help advertisers more effectively reach over one billion mobile users worldwide using premium audience targeting based on location, real-time and historical behavior.”

Advertisers and demand partners have always sought to reach specific mobile audiences, but up until recently they were forced to rely on proxies and inferences when it came to targeting them. However, as mobile audience data has become more sophisticated and granular, advertisers can now achieve higher confidence in their spending decisions when targeting specific consumers. adsquare’s rich, mobile-first audience data spanning 12 markets – USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria and Switzerland – gives demand partners unprecedented accuracy when reaching relevant mobile users in real time, while helping publishers increase yield and maximize revenue.

“The integration gives Smaato’s demand partners access to the adsquare data portfolio, comprised of audience data linked to mobile advertising IDs and local, contextual and app-contextual data. Activating such data through deals and private marketplaces is a great synergy, as it combines audience data with brand-safe inventory at scale while controlling data leakage,” said Tom Laband, CEO and co-founder at adsquare.

The adsquare integration follows closely on the release of Smaato’s Inventory Discovery feature in SDX, which offers demand partners granular, self-service controls designed to make mobile advertising spend as targeted and efficient as possible for programmatic buyers.

To learn more about Smaato and the rich mobile-only audience data now embedded in the Smaato Demand Platform, read our blog post.

Audience buying represents the future of mobile advertising, and Smaato is committed to empowering 450+ demand partners who transact daily on our exchange with more precise, reliable and efficient mobile targeting capabilities,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Smaato and Google Doubleclick Exchange Bidding Partnership Now Available Globally to Hundreds of Premium Mobile Publishers

San Francisco, Calif. – June 15, 2017 – Smaato the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announces today the expansion of its partnership with Google, after a successful integration with DoubleClick’s Exchange Bidding program. Starting this week, hundreds of DoubleClick publishers will gain access to Smaato’s highly-coveted premium worldwide mobile demand – particularly for in-app traffic, Smaato’s core strength, which now makes up 91% of global ad spending on its global mobile-only exchange.

After a close and continuing partnership with Google on the product’s advisory board, Smaato is the first mobile-only exchange expanding into the open beta of DoubleClick’s Exchange Bidding program. Smaato was originally selected by Google last October as its first mobile-only exchange beta partner and has, since then, successfully tested with a select group of publishers.

Now, hundreds of DoubleClick publishers worldwide can open their ad auctions to receive bids from Smaato’s extensive network of 450+ mobile demand partners. The addition of Smaato’s massive global mobile demand to DoubleClick’s can provide additional competition in real-time – particularly for in-app traffic – thereby maximizing revenue for each impression. According to Google, publishers have already seen programmatic revenue lift as high as 40 percent.

“After an extremely successful Exchange Bidding partnership in closed beta, we are excited to continue working with Google DoubleClick to extend Smaato’s premium mobile demand to publishers worldwide,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “Publishers, and particularly apps, want to expand their global reach to fast-growing markets like Asia-Pacific, and Smaato is happy to partner with Google to fulfill that massive opportunity.”

“Smaato has been a great Exchange Bidding partner. They’ve worked with us throughout the closed beta to develop Exchange Bidding into a solution that puts the needs of mobile in-app publishers first,” says Sam Cox, Group Product Manager, DoubleClick Ad Exchange. “App publishers have always had to sacrifice speed to maximize demand for their inventory, but with Exchange Bidding and demand from mobile exchanges like Smaato, they can finally bring real-time pricing from multiple exchanges to bear on all of their inventory.”

After an extremely successful Exchange Bidding partnership in closed beta, we are excited to continue working with Google DoubleClick to extend Smaato’s premium mobile demand to publishers worldwide,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

San Francisco, Calif. – June 13, 2017 – Smaato the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, poises itself for the next rapid growth phase with the appointment of Glenn Fishback as global Chief Revenue Officer. Glenn will focus on scalable and sustainable revenue generation to allow Smaato to gain market share in the US and globally, particularly in China, the second largest mobile advertising market in the world.

Glenn has more than 18 years of executive-level experience leading digital marketing firms during high-growth phases, including several startups that have gone public or have been acquired. As Turn Inc.’s founding Vice President of Sales, Glenn built the company’s sales team from the ground up, successfully developing and scaling one of the earliest DSP platforms for Cadreon back in 2008. In 2012, he became the General Manager of eBay Enterprise’s Global Display Media business, where he helped build the company’s first-party audience targeting programmatic platform that reached more than 200M active global users. Most recently, Glenn was the founding SVP Sales at 12 Digit Media, which was acquired by Westfield Corporation in February 2017.

“Glenn is a visionary sales leader and has been involved in the digital media space from its inception. Glenn brings the leadership and depth of experience, particularly with global advertisers and agencies, that will be critical to Smaato as we grow our global footprint,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

The recent acquisition of Smaato by Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group initiated a strategic growth partnership with the mutual goal of establishing the largest global end-to-end mobile platform – enabling advertising within, into and out of China and leveraging Smaato’s massive global publisher inventory, which reaches 1 billion monthly unique mobile users. Smaato’s priority is to always uphold the highest standards of viewability, transparency and market quality as the company enters its new expansion phase.

“Smaato has built a powerful integrated mobile advertising platform that is entering a period of hypergrowth thanks to its partnership with Spearhead. The team’s expertise in mobile is unparalleled, and I look forward to accelerating their revenue during the next important strategic growth phase of the business,” said Glenn Fishback.

Glenn is a visionary sales leader and has been involved in the digital media space from its inception. Glenn brings the leadership and depth of experience, particularly with global advertisers and agencies, that will be critical to Smaato as we grow our global footprint,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Asia-Pacific is Fastest Growing Region For Mobile Ad Spending as China Surges 90 Percent Over Last Year, According to New Data From Smaato

In-app now accounts for more than 90 percent of all mobile ad spending, up more than 40 percent since last year

San Francisco, Calif. – June 7, 2017 – Smaato the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q1 2017 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report. Smaato analyzed data from 300 billion mobile ad impressions served on its exchange each month and found that mobile ad space is more valuable than ever before as global eCPMs grew almost 50 percent year-over-year.

Fueled by explosive growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, mobile ad spending on the Smaato platform overall climbed 14 percent over the last year. China – the world’s second biggest mobile advertising market – was the strongest Top 10 market performer on the Smaato platform and saw its first quarter ad spending nearly double (+90 percent) since the same quarter last year. China’s ad spending growth was also more than twice that of the next fastest-growing Top 10 market, Australia (+37 percent).

While China continues to be a mobile ad juggernaut, some of APAC’s impressive Q1 growth can be attributed to Chinese/Lunar New Year, which fell on January 28. Celebrated by more than 20 percent of the world’s population, countries in the region that celebrate the holiday experienced 18 percent higher ad revenue on average than neighboring non-celebrating countries. The number of unique devices on the Smaato platform from celebrating countries also spiked on January 28.

According to eMarketer, mobile users in the US now spend 89 percent (more than 2 hours daily) of their total smartphone time in-app, and advertisers are taking note in their spending. In-app ad spending continues to eat mobile web and now owns 91 percent of all global ad spending on the Smaato platform, which represents a 41 percent overall increase since Q1 2016. In-app eCPMs have also increased 54 percent in Q1 year-over-year.

“The data across our global platform indicate that advertisers are catching on to how consumers increasingly spend their time in apps. When advertisers understand the value of the long-term tracking capabilities of in-app advertising, combined with rich audience data, we expect to see the eCPMs of in-app advertising to increase by 50 to 100 percent until 2019,” said Ragnar Kruse, co-founder and CEO of Smaato.

Mobile ‘prime time’ differs from country to country. In the US and the UK, mobile ad views and spending peak on weekdays from 7-11 pm and 3-9 pm, respectively. However, in Japan, ‘prime time’ on weekdays is much later, occurring between 7 pm-1 am In China, mobile usage is consistent throughout the day.

Music Apps Rock Ad Spending, While eCPM Shines in Weather Apps. The Music app category is the clear leader for total ad spending share on the Smaato platform (16 percent vs 10 percent for the next highest category). The Weather app category commands the highest eCPMs — more than 2.5x higher than any other category.

Geography Drives Mobile Weather App Seasonality. From summer in South Korea to autumn in Australia, changes in weather patterns and types (e.g. rain, wind, sun) drive significant variation in peak weather app usage over the course of a year.

Major Sports Events Spike Mobile Ad Value in the US. Within the Sports app category, eCPMs on Super Bowl Sunday jumped +25% versus other days in the same month, while the NBA Finals and Copa America spiked Sports app eCPMs in late June over 40 percent.

Smaato delivers billions of ad impressions each month, which are auctioned through a network of more than 450 demand partners. The Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report reflects the activity and trends that have developed over the first quarter of 2017 across Smaato’s global base of publishers, advertisers and mobile device users, and analyzes trends in 2017 across quarters and against the previous year.

The data across our global platform indicate that advertisers are catching on to how consumers increasingly spend their time in apps. When advertisers understand the value of the long-term tracking capabilities of in-app advertising, combined with rich audience data, we expect to see the eCPMs of in-app advertising to increase by 50 to 100 percent until 2019,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

San Francisco, Calif. – March 8, 2017 – Smaato launches today the mobile advertising industry’s first Inventory Discovery feature, transforming how mobile advertisers are able to discover and target mobile advertising inventory from the Smaato exchange. What used to be a manual process is now automated, giving the global, real-time mobile monetization platform’s 450+ demand partners increased access, more control and dramatically higher inventory and engagement potential.

The new Inventory Discovery feature of the Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) automates the process of identifying mobile supply by giving control to the mobile buyer with a self-service interface. Inventory Discovery offers granular, self-service controls designed to make mobile advertising spend as targeted and efficient as possible for programmatic buyers.

“We’re excited to unveil the Inventory Discovery feature of SDX as it provides new value to our demand partners, giving them power to seamlessly identify and target new publisher inventory for their campaigns,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “By enhancing our platform to give demand partners more control, Smaato continues to close the gap between the demand and supply sides, which makes our overall offering more robust and scalable.”

In addition to greatly simplifying the process of finding new mobile inventory, the interface also offers granular targeting capabilities to better identify mobile inventory relevant to particular campaigns and goals. Available inventory can be filtered based on time, Queries Per Second (QPS), geography, ad format, operating system, device type, and more. Once relevant inventory is found, with one click, mobile advertisers can create an SDX line item and start receiving bid requests immediately. In effect, they can instantly find the precise audience traffic they want, without wasting time manually sourcing new relevant publishers.

The launch of Inventory Discovery follows closely on the heels of SDX, which empowers buyers to optimize their mobile advertising traffic with a robust suite of targeting tools. Launched in July, SDX has seen significant growth, with 100 percent of Smaato’s demand partners now onboarded and using the targeting tools to optimize their campaigns and reduce mobile advertising waste.

We’re excited to unveil the Inventory Discovery feature of SDX as it provides new value to our demand partners, giving them power to seamlessly identify and target new publisher inventory for their campaigns,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Japan and Malaysia Saw Higher Singles’ Day 2016 Mobile Advertising Bump than China, According to New Global Data from Smaato

China also saw higher mobile advertising spend on Black Friday, despite being the birthplace of Singles’ Day

San Francisco, Calif. – March 2, 2017 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q4 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report. Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the fourth quarter of 2016 and found surprising data on the two key global ‘event shopping’ days of the traditional ‘Holiday Period’: Black Friday and Singles’ Day.

A testament to the increasingly globalized nature of commerce, Japan and Malaysia observed higher spikes in mobile advertising spend on Smaato’s platform on Singles’ Day than in China, the birthplace of the shopping holiday. Meanwhile, China saw increased spending on mobile advertising on Singles’ Day, but actually experienced more spending on Black Friday, a shopping event born in the United States.

Across APAC, the Singles’ Day Effect was less pronounced in markets such as Thailand, Singapore and South Korea, all of which experienced no observable bump. Interestingly, however these markets saw a significant increase in mobile advertising spending around Black Friday. And although Black Friday was significant in China, the market’s biggest day of the year in 2016 occurred around Mid-Autumn Festival in September. Meanwhile, Black Friday was the biggest single mobile advertising spend day of the year on the Smaato platform in 2016.

Additional findings in the report include:

China drives mobile advertising growth in APAC. China posted the highest growth of any major country in the world in 2016, more than tripling its mobile ad spending this past year on the Smaato platform.

The difference a day makes in mobile advertising. In 2016 on the Smaato platform, Friday and Saturday were the highest mobile advertising spending days; Monday was the lowest. However, just a year ago, Saturday saw the lowest mobile advertising spending globally.

Advertisers drawn to unique capabilities of in-app advertising. Over the past year on the Smaato platform, the eCPMs advertisers are willing to pay for in-app mobile advertising have increased a whopping 130%, while mobile web eCPMs have only increased 67% over the same period.

Smaato delivers up to 300 billion ad impressions each month, which are auctioned through a network of more than 450 demand partners. The Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report reflects the activity and trends that have developed over the fourth quarter of 2016 across Smaato’s global base of publishers, advertisers and mobile device users, and analyzes trends in 2016 in comparison to 2015.

Smaato Appoints Gerry Louw as CTO and Ryan Klinefelter as Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer to Expand the Company’s Global Footprint Following its Acquisition

Louw is responsible for leading Smaato’s technology and infrastructure strategy, while Klinefelter will drive the company’s acquisition growth strategy in new markets and for its demand-side technologies.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. – February 16, 2017 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announces today that Gerry Louw has been named Chief Technology Officer and Ryan Klinefelter has been promoted to Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer. The appointments come during a period of rapid growth and opportunity for Smaato, with the recent completion of its acquisition by Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group and continued innovation to their platform.

Gerry and Ryan will work jointly to accelerate Smaato’s continued strategy of building the leading end-to-end marketing technology solution that opens new frontiers and capabilities in global advertising. As CTO, Gerry will lead the systems engineering and technology strategy, including technology architecture and standards, risk management, and research and development into new areas like machine learning. As Chief Corporate Strategy & Development Officer, Ryan will leverage his expertise with acquisitions and strategic corporate finance activities to drive an aggressive growth strategy in new markets and for Smaato’s demand-side technologies.

“Both Gerry and Ryan have been instrumental in navigating Smaato through a critical inflection point in the business and our acquisition, and we have the utmost trust in their abilities to guide us in this new chapter of growth as we build out our platform and scale in new markets,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

“Smaato has always been a technology-first company, and now with Spearhead, we are entering a new phase of expanding the capabilities and scope of our platform, with a particular emphasis on demand-side technologies that strengthen our leadership as the end-to-end mobile monetization solution,” said Gerry Louw.

“Today we have the runway to execute on a range of strategic initiatives over the coming years that will drive growth in new markets and deepen our ties in existing ones, and we’re also in a strong position to acquire the companies that will help get us there faster,” said Ryan Klinefelter.

Gerry is a seasoned technology entrepreneur whose career has spanned many verticals, including finance, advertising and media and entertainment. Through his prior executive leadership and engineering roles at RhythmOne, Agency.com/Designatory, World Wrestling Entertainment and VMS, Gerry has led startups of all sizes, and brought to market significant industry-first solutions and delivered triple-digit growth. Gerry has played a leading role in multiple IPOs and acquisitions, and played a key role in expediting the acquisition of Smaato by Spearhead.

Ryan has over 10-years of investment experience across digital media and principal investment platforms. Ryan joined Smaato in 2014 as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and played the lead strategic role in sourcing and undertaking due diligence in the Spearhead acquisition. Previously, he oversaw the corporate development function at RhythmOne Plc (LON: RTHM), where he led capital raises and sourced six acquisitions including Grab Media, Rhythm NewMedia, Lyfe Mobile and AdKarma.

“Both Gerry and Ryan have been instrumental in navigating Smaato through a critical inflection point in the business and our acquisition, and we have the utmost trust in their abilities to guide us in this new chapter of growth as we build out our platform and scale in new markets,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

In-App Mobile Advertising Accounts for 81 Percent of Ad Spend Compared to Mobile Web, According to New Data from Smaato

San Francisco, Calif. – January 12, 2017 – the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q3 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report. Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the third quarter of 2016 and found the extent to which mobile advertising spend is now heavily weighted toward in-app versus the mobile web. The new report shows that in-app accounted for 81% of global mobile ad spend compared to mobile web, and rose 8 share points versus the same quarter last year.

Even at the country level, the dominance of in-app versus mobile web advertising is a worldwide phenomenon. In mature mobile markets, such as the US, France, Sweden and Germany, in-app mobile ad spending represented 83%, 88%, 90% and 94%, respectively, of ad spend on Smaato’s platform in Q3 2016. In China, in-app represented 99% of total mobile ad spend. This trend is also seen in emerging markets, such as Brazil and India, where in-app spend garnered 84% and 83%, respectively.

Smaato credits the increase of in-app mobile advertising to increasing advertiser recognition that people are spending more and more time in their mobile apps and to the unique, superior and more reliable user tracking and targeting characteristics of the in-app mobile environment. On average, in-app eCPMs for publishers are more than two times higher than mobile web eCPMs on Smaato’s platform, a trend that has remained consistent. However, mobile advertising within web browsers is far from dying out, as it still accounts for 19% of all mobile ad spending on the Smaato platform and – while growing significantly more slowly than in-app ad spending – is nonetheless up almost 4% from the same quarter last year. Furthermore, mobile web eCPMs grew more than 10% on average in Q3 2016 versus Q3 2015.

Additional findings in the report include:

Android dethrones iOS as eCPM king for the first time, accounting for 55% of global mobile ad revenue generated by publishers compared to iOS (41%), whose share is eroding.

Men are from Android, women are from iOS. Ad requests coming from a male’s smartphone are 3x more likely to come from an Android device over an iOS device; when the ad request comes from a female’s smartphone, it’s 1.5x more likely to come from an iOS device versus Android.

Video advertising takes off in Q3 2016, rising 557% in Q3 versus Q2. Video eCPMs grew 62% as well. Average video eCPMs in Q3 were more than 9 times higher than the average overall eCPMs on the Smaato platform.

Smaato credits the increase of in-app mobile advertising to increasing advertiser recognition that people are spending more and more time in their mobile apps and to the unique, superior and more reliable user tracking and targeting characteristics of the in-app mobile environment.

Smaato and Spearhead are moving forward with the expansion of the leading global real-time mobile monetization platform

Beijing / San Francisco / Hamburg – December 21, 2016 – Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group (SZSE: 300071) has completed its acquisition of San Francisco-based Smaato Inc. and Smaato Holding AG, the leading independent global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, for $148 million. The acquisition was secured through an M&A fund invested by one of Spearhead’s fully-owned subsidiaries, and formally closed today following signatures and regulatory approval.

With the growth of mobile advertising worldwide, and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, the partnership between Smaato and Spearhead is synergistic and timely. With Smaato’s cutting-edge mobile monetization platform and global reach to 1 billion monthly unique mobile users outside of China, Spearhead now opens the door for Chinese brands to run international mobile campaigns and reach high-value users as they expand their businesses abroad.

Spearhead offers Smaato an anchor in China and the greater APAC region to more effectively reach these burgeoning mobile- and app-first markets, and the resources to accelerate the development of new, innovative mobile advertising technology, products and services. Smaato now has greater access to the 1 billion mobile users in China – representing the world’s second largest mobile advertising market – which bolsters their position as the leading independent global real-time mobile advertising platform.

Smaato CEO and co-founder Ragnar Kruse said in a statement, “Ever since we opened our APAC office six years ago, China has been a very important market for us to cultivate, and increasingly we have seen Chinese brands eager to reach international audiences. That’s what makes our partnership with Spearhead such a successful model, in that both sides are helping each other strategically advance their businesses.”

Smaato will retain its branding and name and remain largely independent within Spearhead. However, to unlock synergies between Smaato and Spearhead, a new integration team has been formed to fully leverage the scale and strategic potential of this partnership by creating an end-to-end marketing technology solution that opens new frontiers and capabilities in global advertising. With the deal now closed, Smaato and Spearhead can focus on the long-term strategy and execution of scaling the world’s leading independent mobile monetization platform with the ability to reach every mobile user, no matter their device or location.

About Smaato and Spearhead

Smaato is the leading global real-time mobile advertising platform, connecting 10,000+ advertisers – including 91 of the Top 100 Ad Age brands – with over 90,000 app developers and mobile web publishers. Smaato manages up to 10 billion mobile ad impressions daily and reaches over 1 billion unique mobile users monthly. Founded in 2005 by an experienced international management team, Smaato’s global headquarters are in San Francisco, California, with additional regional headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, and Singapore. Learn more at www.smaato.com.

Spearhead IMC Group [ChiNEXT Shenzhen, 300071] A-share listed company, is one of the largest Integrated Marketing Communication Groups in China. Founded in 2003 in Beijing, Spearhead is committed to being the leading globalized and digitized all-in-one communication group, connecting people and brands by maximizing the synergies of entertainment, fashion & lifestyle, social content and marketing big data. Through its operating companies, Spearhead provides a comprehensive range of marketing solutions including Advertising and PR communication, Experiential marketing, Digital marketing, Content marketing and Big Data marketing. Through full collaboration of its subsidiaries and brands, such as Trust & Belief, D&S, Allyes, YOKA.com and Smaato, Spearhead offers its clients seamless access to its tools and expertise platform from offline to online, from field marketing execution to full media communication, from big content to big data. The company employs over 2500 people and has built up a network of 200,000 field promoters/brand ambassadors/field data collectors to cover 400+ cities all over China. For more information, visit www.spearhead.com.cn.

“Ever since we opened our APAC office six years ago, China has been a very important market for us to cultivate, and increasingly we have seen Chinese brands eager to reach international audiences. That’s what makes our partnership with Spearhead such a successful model, in that both sides are helping each other strategically advance their businesses.” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Smaato Introduces Outstream and Rewarded Video Capabilities to Round Out its Global “One-Stop Shop” for Mobile Publishers and Advertisers

To keep pace with global demand for digital video, Smaato expands its suite of mobile video ad capabilities to help publishers and advertisers diversify their inventory, drive engagement and grow revenue

SAN FRANCISCO – November 17, 2016 – Video is the fastest growing segment in mobile advertising today. To meet new demand for premium mobile video ads, Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, is adding support for two new, innovative video ad formats: Outstream and Rewarded video. With these additions, Smaato strengthens its standing as the integrated, “one-stop shop” for all programmatic video advertising solutions, which allows mobile publishers and advertisers to drive engagement and revenue through diversified, high value video inventory.

As of today, the 90,000+ mobile publishers and app developers and 450+ demand partners using Smaato’s mobile monetization platform have access to a wide range of mobile video formats, including:

Instream – Video ad that plays within video content; full screen ads that appear before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll) or after (post-roll) video content

MRAID Video – In-app rich media display ads that include video

Beyond traditional video ad offerings, Smaato will directly serve Outstream and Rewarded video ads through the Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX). Outstream video ads are those that appear as users scroll through a non-video article or web page. Publishers benefit from Outstream video ads because the format does not require them to have a built-in video player, and they can be placed in non-video content for optimal viewing. Consumers like them because they start playing automatically without sound once they are partially in view and stop playing when they are out of view. Due to this feature, Outstream video ads can guarantee viewability as defined by the industry, which is something advertisers care deeply about.

Rewarded video ads offer each user an incentive in exchange for watching the ad to completion. By giving users the choice to engage with ads that offer an incentive, Rewarded video ads are a proven way for publishers to offer a better user experience and create a new source of revenue. Rewarded videos can also introduce users to in-app purchases and drive up the lifetime value of users. They also help advertisers achieve stronger performance for their video ad campaigns. Because Rewarded video ads give greater control to mobile users via the opt-in, they typically provide advertisers very high video completion rates on their campaigns.

“We are moving quickly toward a world where content is ‘watched’ more often than it is ‘read.’ Outstream and Rewarded video are two important ways we continue to invest in areas with the biggest revenue potential for both the supply and demand side of our global advertising marketplace,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Changing consumer habits are dictating the shift toward video advertising. According to eMarketer, the time adults spend watching digital video every day has increased from 21 minutes in 2011 to 76 minutes in 2015. eMarketer projects that this figure will rise to 99 minutes in 2016. To accommodate this shift, mobile publishers and app developers are seeking new ways to leverage video to monetize their inventory. Over the past two years, Smaato has seen substantial interest in mobile video advertising from demand partners, and strong adoption of video across publishers, with mobile video ads delivering 11 times higher eCPMs than traditional formats in Q1 2016.

For more information about Smaato’s full suite of mobile video advertising capabilities, visit the Ad Formats page on our website.

“We are moving quickly toward a world where content is ‘watched’ more often than it is ‘read.’ Outstream and Rewarded video are two important ways we continue to invest in areas with the biggest revenue potential for both the supply and demand side of our global advertising marketplace,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) empowers demand partners to target traffic most relevant to their mobile campaigns with a robust suite of traffic optimization tools that offer unprecedented precision, control and flexibility

SAN FRANCISCO – July 26, 2016 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announces a major expansion of its mobile monetization solutions for the demand side of the mobile advertising ecosystem. Launching today, the Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) empowers demand partners to optimize their mobile advertising traffic with a robust suite of traffic targeting tools providing precision, control and flexibility. SDX significantly reduces operational waste for demand partners across mobile advertising campaigns.

Prior to the release of SDX, advertisers and demand-side partners seeking to effectively manage their mobile ad inventory lacked a solution to segment or optimize their mobile traffic at scale. Now, with the first phase of the SDX roll-out, demand partners can leverage powerful targeting and QPS (query per second) throttling tools that give them granular control over what kind of traffic they receive. Beyond country-level targeting, inventory can be ramped up based on ad format, device type, connection type and in-app versus mobile web. They will also be able to filter out or target publishers based on previous campaign performance. Segmenting what they receive to only that traffic most relevant to their mobile advertising campaigns eliminates significant waste in mobile advertising for demand partners.

“With the introduction of SDX, Smaato can now proudly say we offer the industry’s most comprehensive, robust mobile advertising solutions for both the demand and supply side of the ecosystem,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “We carefully considered the pain points of our demand partners and believe that SDX is an important step toward giving our partners control over the traffic they receive to target the premium mobile inventory most relevant to their campaigns.”

Early adopters of the new Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) have already benefitted from greater flexibility and control over their mobile ad traffic. Adelphic, one of the world’s largest mobile and cross-channel programmatic advertising platforms, integrated with SDX in late May and has quickly seen significant improvements in their overall results. After leveraging the QPS and geographic targeting tools, Adelphic saw significantly more relevant mobile traffic, resulting in a 20% increase in their month-over-month mobile ad spending.

“There’s simply no other solution on the market like Smaato’s SDX, and it’s become a go-to platform for optimizing mobile advertising campaigns,” said Julie Tagliamonte, Director of Supply Partnerships at Adelphic.

In addition to SDX on the demand side of the ecosystem, Smaato offers the full-featured Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX) on the supply side, which includes a free publisher ad server, a global real-time bidding (RTB) mobile ad exchange, integrated network mediation, support for direct-sold and private exchange deals and dynamic demand technology. Working with more than 90,000 app developers and publishers, Smaato serves up to 10 billion ads each day, reaching one billion unique mobile users globally each month.

Mobile Video Ads Outperform All Other Formats, Delivering 11x Higher eCPMs, According to New Report from Smaato

Music apps are the most lucrative category for in-app mobile video ads, with a +54% eCPM uplift for publishers

SAN FRANCISCO – June 30, 2016 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report. To identify the trends, Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of 2016.

In terms of app categories that deliver highest eCPMs: music saw a +54% eCPM uplift, followed by Video & Computer Games (+38%), Society (+29%) and then Real Estate (+15%). This makes intuitive sense, as people using apps in the Arts and Entertainment category are already being exposed to rich media (including sound), and mobile video ads may seem less invasive.

As the world’s second largest advertising market, China saw an astounding +1,198% rise in ad spending.

Countries that celebrated Chinese New Year saw a +33% bump in pre-holiday mobile ad spending on average over their APAC neighbors who did not celebrate the holiday.

“Mobile video advertising is showing enormous growth potential, helping publishers to boost their monetization efforts and advertisers to engage their target audiences better,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “It’s very encouraging to see the continued overall strength of quarterly mobile ad spend growth, which is up 89% globally. I’m also impressed by the immunity of mobile ad spend to downward macroeconomic factors. For example, Brazil’s emerging mobile market saw quarterly mobile ad spend grow a surprising +121% in Q1 year-over-year – almost as much as the healthy U.S. market at +130% – despite major economic and political challenges.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Wednesday, June 8, 2016 – Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group (SZSE: 300071) has made a proposal to acquire for $148 million San Francisco-based Smaato, the leading independent global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, through an M&A fund invested by one of its fully-owned subsidiaries.

The deal is subject to final agreement signing, regulatory and each transaction party’s decision-making body approvals. This deal highlights the explosive growth and worldwide reach of mobile advertising and that rapidly growing Chinese marketing companies are emerging as global advertising leaders.

The acquisition of Smaato opens three key strategic areas for Spearhead. First, Smaato’s global business and market position provides Spearhead a substantial beachhead for expansion onto the broader worldwide stage. Second, Smaato delivers instant global reach of over 1 billion unique mobile users each month outside of China through Smaato’s global app developers and mobile publishers. Third, within China, Smaato is uniquely positioned to accelerate Spearhead’s mobile advertising capabilities through its platform that provides an end-to-end, integrated marketing solution for the China market. Importantly, Smaato also delivers to Spearhead a cutting-edge real-time mobile advertising technology with its SPX Publisher Platform.

This deal will significantly accelerate Smaato’s growth over the next few months. It enables Smaato to enter China with an established Chinese partner. Smaato will now have access to the vast number of mobile users within China, extending its current reach of over one billion consumers outside of China. Smaato will also have a partner with the resources to accelerate its technology roadmap and commercial growth.

Smaato CEO and co-founder Ragnar Kruse said in a statement, “This collaboration creates enormous new opportunities for both partners. Spearhead brings to Smaato not only its expertise and a trusted partnership but opens up the Chinese market for us. Smaato allows Spearhead to expand very quickly outside of China. Together, we unlock potential for enormous growth and exciting possibilities that neither business could achieve alone.”

“This collaboration creates enormous new opportunities for both partners. Spearhead brings to Smaato not only its expertise and a trusted partnership but opens up the Chinese market for us. Smaato allows Spearhead to expand very quickly outside of China.” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Press Releases

Publishers use the SPX Management API to connect with the world’s leading independent mobile ad platform, which manages up to 10 billion ad impressions every day.

SAN FRANCISCO – Thursday, June 2, 2016 – Today, Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announced a major enhancement to its SPX publisher platform. For the first time, mobile publishers and app developers using Smaato to monetize their apps and mobile websites can access the platform through an easy-to-use API.

With programmatic access to all major SPX functions, the SPX Management API, along with the existing SPX Reporting API, allows mobile publishers and app developers to connect Smaato’s full mobile monetization platform to their internal Content Management System (CMS) or other enterprise applications. This means that Smaato becomes a more integral part of their app development and monetization business.

“Global monetization of mobile apps is a 24/7 business that needs automation to succeed at scale. At Smaato, we focus on building the right features and tools to help publishers automate, save time and earn more money through mobile advertising” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “We understand that large publishers need more integrated solutions. That’s why we’re opening up access to our platform via an API – allowing our customers to integrate SPX into their enterprise solution.”

With the SPX Management API, publishers are given more control over their mobile advertising strategy than ever before. Publishers can change floor prices at any time and create or pause line items right within their CMS or internal systems, keeping all monetization efforts in one easily-accessible, familiar place.

Smaato serves up to 10 billion ads each day, reaching one billion unique mobile devices globally each month, and works with 90,000 app developers and mobile publishers.

“Global monetization of mobile apps is a 24/7 business that needs automation to succeed at scale. At Smaato, we focus on building the right features and tools to help publishers automate, save time and earn more money through mobile advertising” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Publishers Harnessing the Power of Data Tripled Revenue in Q4 2015, According to New Report from Smaato

Company finds that publishers passing data saw a dramatic rise in eCPMs

SAN FRANCISCO – March 23, 2016 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q4 2015 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report . Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the fourth quarter of 2015 to reveal the extent to which data brings in higher eCPMs for publishers. Smaato’s platform shows that ads with GPS coordinate data increase eCPMs by 162 percent, and on average publishers who leveraged Age and Gender data saw eCPMs triple during Q4 2015. As the world continues to shift to mobile – by 2020, 90 percent of the world’s population will have a mobile phone – data represents a powerful new tool for app developers looking to monetize.

Advertisers pay significantly more money to publishers that provide accurate data. But in addition to being more valuable in the absolute, passing data is also becoming more valuable over time. While eCPMs for ad impressions without data still rose throughout 2015 (by 42 percent), ad impressions that passed data saw eCPMs rise by a staggering 120 percent.

Smaato found that over 2015:

The more accurate your location data is, the better. eCPMs based on ZIP/postal code data increased by 74 percent, while eCPMs based on GPS coordinates increased by 162 percent.

Gender matters. Publishers who are able to identify male users saw eCPMs increase by 115 percent, and those identifying female users saw an uptick of 177 percent.

“Data truly is the new mobile currency,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “It’s a win-win-win. Making use of this data maximizes revenue for publishers, it allows advertisers to reach their target audience effectively, and the end user gets a better, more relevant ad experience. Now more than ever, it pays to know who your users are.”

Additional findings in the report include:

Mobile ad spending in the U.S. exceeded desktop for the first time. Propelled by rising ad spend globally, mobile grabbed a majority share – 51.9 percent – of all digital ad spending last year.

Mobile ad spend in China is growing at a staggering pace. While the U.S. remains the most valuable ad market in the world – and it continues growing at a healthy clip – China experienced a mobile ad spend uplift of 1,246 percent in Q4 2015.

Android’s eCPM growth rate was much stronger than that of iOS during Q4 2015. iOS users are no longer 1.55 times more valuable than Android users, and Smaato’s data shows that Android eCPMs are projected to pull even with those of iOS as early as Q4 2016.

Smaato serves up 10 billion ads each day, across one billion mobile devices each month, and works with 90,000 mobile app developers and publishers. The Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report reflects the detailed activity and trends that have developed over the fourth quarter of 2015 across Smaato’s global base of publishers, advertisers and users.

“Data truly is the new mobile currency,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “It’s a win-win-win. Making use of this data maximizes revenue for publishers, it allows advertisers to reach their target audience effectively, and the end user gets a better, more relevant ad experience. Now more than ever, it pays to know who your users are.”

Google Integrates Smaato into AdMob and DoubleClick to Help Publishers Maximize Revenues

As the largest independent mobile ad platform, Smaato is tapped by Google for its global demand network of more than 450 partners

SAN FRANCISCO – March 14, 2016 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today announced it’s been selected by Google and integrated into the AdMob and DoubleClick for Publishers platforms via SDK-less mediation. Now, publishers on AdMob and DoubleClick will be able to easily leverage Smaato’s innovative dynamic demand technology to connect with more than 450 ad networks and demand-side platforms around the world and maximize revenues.

With SDK-less mediation, Google is allowing developers to leverage additional ad networks without integrating and testing new SDKs. Now, new networks are added server-side without the need for publishers to waste development resources, perform app updates, or risk bugs and bloated code. Google has selected four leading companies – Smaato, Drawbridge, Aarki, and MdotM – as its first round of partners for SDK-less mediation.

Smaato’s competitive advantage lies in the size of its global network. Serving up 10 billion ad impressions daily, the company works with more than 90,000 mobile publishers and app developers, as well as 450 demand-side partners. Smaato has recently seen astounding growth in China – a critical, lucrative market for mobile publishers and app developers – with impressions in the region jumping 203 percent throughout 2015 and ad spend growth of 1,246 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“From day one, our focus has always been on helping mobile publishers and app developers maximize monetization,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “Google clearly shares this mission. By integrating competitors’ networks into its platform, Google is making the mobile ad experience as seamless – and lucrative – as possible for app developers. We’re eager to connect publishers on AdMob and DoubleClick with our vast global network, to help them hit higher revenues than ever before.”

To learn more about Smaato’s solutions for mobile publishers and app developers, please visit: www.smaato.com.

“Google clearly shares this mission. By integrating competitors’ networks into its platform, Google is making the mobile ad experience as seamless – and lucrative – as possible for app developers. We’re eager to connect publishers on AdMob and DoubleClick with our vast global network, to help them hit higher revenues than ever before” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Mobile Advertising Soars in Developing Countries, According to New Report from Smaato

Company also finds mobile users are shifting from the mobile web to apps, with a 6 percent year-over-year shift in both supply and spending across the platform

SAN FRANCISCO – November 11, 2015 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Q3 2015 Global Trends in Mobile Programmatic Report. Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the third quarter of 2015 to reveal massive growth in Latin America and Asia Pacific. With Venezuela and Indonesia growing by 91 and 84 percent in the third quarter, respectively, these regions represent the next frontier of mobile advertising for publishers and advertisers alike.

While the strongest regions on the Smaato platform remain those with highly-developed mobile, advertising and commerce infrastructures (i.e., the United States, United Kingdom and Germany) and those with large populations and a mobile-first mentality (i.e., India and Russia), Latin America and Asia Pacific are new to the list of leading regions. This comes as a result of rapidly eveloping mobile networks and a proliferation of smartphones, which have combined to create a wealth of opportunities for mobile publishers and advertisers on the Smaato platform.

“As the world gets more connected, it’s never been more crucial to go global with your mobile advertising strategy,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “India, with its massive, mobile-first population, has long been considered the ‘next big market.’ While India remains a growing powerhouse, our data also shows that countries like Indonesia and Brazil are up-and-coming markets in Latin America and Asia Pacific – and offer incredible opportunities for publishers to monetize, and for advertisers to connect with consumers.”

Meanwhile, Smaato found that a subtle year-over-year shift in Q3 away from the mobile web in favor of apps. This shift could come as a result of publishers directing users to apps to avoid ad-blocking software, which is primarily a mobile web issue. Smaato’s exchange saw a 6 percent positive shift in favor of apps in both supply (publisher inventory) and spend (advertisers’ spending on the Smaato exchange) during the third quarter of 2015, relative to the mobile web.

Additional findings in the report include:

The operating system with strongest growth continues to be Android, with supply and spending soaring by a whopping 67 percent during the third quarter of 2015 from the year before.

Larger ad formats result in higher eCPM. While traditional banners (320×50) are still growing, their rate of growth is dropping in favor of larger sizes like the medium rectangle (300×250) – up 85 percent – and the interstitial ad (320×480) – which grew 77 percent.

Smaato serves up to 6 billion ads each day, across 800 million unique monthly mobile users around the world, and works with 90,000 mobile app developers and publishers.

The Global Trends in Mobile Programmatic Report reflects the detailed activity and trends that have developed over the third quarter of 2015 across Smaato’s broad, global base of publishers, advertisers and users.

“As the world gets more connected, it’s never been more crucial to go global with your mobile advertising strategy,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato.

Power to the Publishers: Smaato Integrates Competitors’ Ad Servers Into Its Platform, Giving App Developers The Biggest Bang For Their Buck

New tool, called SDK Mediation, allows publishers to leverage third-party ad servers along with the Smaato server in one centralized platform

SAN FRANCISCO – November 4, 2015 – today Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announced a major enhancement to its SPX publisher platform. In order to yield the highest possible revenue for publishers – and at the risk of giving business to competitors – Smaato is integrating other well-known ad servers into its platform. Large publishers around the world want to work with large ad networks and exchanges. Now, Smaato is a one-stop shop to connect publishers with all the biggest, and most reputable, names in mobile ad serving.

The Smaato SPX platform now features simple, drag-and-drop integration capabilities for leading third party ad servers, as well as a custom network option for additional networks. All the SDK-connected demand happens on the client-side, which reduces latency and ensures that the publisher’s experience remains top-notch. What’s more, these integrations make Smaato’s “Dynamic Demand” – its real-time programmatic competition within the platform – even more intelligent by adding more demand sources. With more demand comes higher eCPMs for mobile publishers.

“Competition is key in any marketplace, and with this integration, we’re really taking that concept to a whole new level,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “We’ve been focused on doing everything in our power to allow mobile publishers to make more revenue since day one. By integrating our competitors’ platforms into our platform, we’ve added another layer of Dynamic Demand so our publishers can make more educated decisions, and bring in more profit than ever before.”

Smaato serves up to 6 billion ads each day, across 800 million unique monthly mobile users around the world, and works with 90,000 mobile app developers and publishers. To learn more about Smaato’s solutions for mobile publishers and app developers, please visit: www.smaato.com

New native advertising and private marketplace functionalities make Smaato the first platform to unite native advertising with a mobile-first, full-featured monetization platform

SAN FRANCISCO – September 15, 2015 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today expanded its industry-leading publisher platform, SPX, to include a super-simple native advertising builder and private marketplace functionality. These two features are on the forefront of mobile advertising technology, and now will be integrated into Smaato’s platform, which is already the largest independent, globally-focused mobile exchange. Smaato is beefing up its real-time advertising platform to give more control to its 90,000+ mobile publisher and app developer partners, helping them boost monetization in the busy Q4 season.

Obtrusive advertising is a death sentence for nascent mobile publishers looking to monetize: bad creatives can kill mobile advertising. Meanwhile, native advertising on mobile is seen as the most effective way to unobtrusively connect with viewers. These ads drive four times higher click through rates than mobile banner ads and are viewed 53 percent more frequently by consumers. With Apple allowing ad-blocking extensions for Safari in iOS 9, launching this week, creating mobile ads that offer a seamless, pleasant experience for mobile users has never been more important to the mobile advertising ecosystem.

With Smaato’s “point-and-click” native mobile ad builder – the first fully functional native ad builder for mobile publishers – these ads can be created more easily than ever. Publishers are empowered to build native ad campaigns in a variety of formats and sizes that they know will look best in their apps or websites and connect with their audiences best.

“In the mobile advertising industry, the mantra is innovate or lose,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “We’re constantly looking for ways to improve the mobile ad experience – whether that’s by improving the relevance and aesthetics of ads, eradicating mobile ad fraud or helping maximize the revenue mobile publishers make from their ad space. We want to give our 90,000 mobile publishers every tool they need to be successful – and today, we took a huge step in that direction.”

Not only can publishers choose how their mobile ads look and feel, with today’s announcement they’re also empowered to choose how these native ad campaigns are sold in the Smaato exchange – and thus strike more premium, high-revenue deals. With the private marketplace functionality, Smaato’s publishers can assign inventory to a certain number of programmatic buyers, allowing them to compete for the impressions in a private auction. Of course, they are still able to select a preferred deal buying model, in which the publisher sets up a first-look, fixed price, pre-auction deal for a particular buyer.

This news also marks an expansion of Smaato’s Dynamic Demand from three components to four. Dynamic Demand is Smaato’s real-time programmatic competition within the platform among all types of demand for the highest eCPMs for publishers. Now, it will choose the advertising source in the publisher’s stack that offers the highest eCPM based on:

Direct campaigns

Smaato’s RTB exchange and ad network mediation

Publisher-owned ad networks

Private Marketplace

Smaato is also improving how it makes video ad buying programmatic by certifying VAST-compliant video inventory, and allowing it to be monetized via private exchanges or in the open market.

Smaato serves up to 6 billion ads each day, across 600 million unique monthly mobile users around the world, and works with 90,000 mobile app developers and publishers. To learn more about Smaato’s solutions for mobile publishers and app developers, please visit: www.smaato.com

“The shift to mobile began with the mobile web – and then apps took over,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato. “Although we can’t say for sure whether we’re looking at a huge comeback of the medium, the fact remains that publishers and advertisers can’t afford to ignore the mobile web. Mobile ad strategies – whether it be the size of ads or the use of rich media – must be created with both app and mobile web usage in mind.

Mobile Web Usage Has Doubled Over the Past Year, According to New Report from Smaato

SAN FRANCISCO – August 28, 2015 – Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, today released its Global Trends in Mobile Programmatic Report. Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first half of 2015 to reveal that mobile web usage is soaring. While apps still command the market for overall ad spending on mobile, spending on the mobile web increased by 100 percent over the past year.

Social apps like Facebook and Twitter could be the driving force behind this surge in mobile web usage. According to a recent report from IAB, 52 percent of smartphone owners say they tap links in mobile apps that take them to web articles they want to read.

“The shift to mobile began with the mobile web – and then apps took over,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato. “Although we can’t say for sure whether we’re looking at a huge comeback of the medium, the fact remains that publishers and advertisers can’t afford to ignore the mobile web. Mobile ad strategies – whether it be the size of ads or the use of rich media – must be created with both app and mobile web usage in mind.”

Smaato also found that advertisers are doubling down on targeting families and parents on mobile. Spending on this demographic increased by over 300 percent over the past year, while the second most lucrative vertical only rose by 87 percent. We may be reaching the last frontier of mobile, where brands and advertisers no longer exclusively see mobile users as young and tech-savvy. 72 percent of kids eight and under have used tablets or smartphones, according to a study from Common Sense Media, and brands are doubling down on mobile to tap into this lucrative market.

Additional findings from the report include:

App developers and publishers who provide age and gender information make four times as much in ad revenues as those who do not.

Larger ad sizes are surging in popularity, especially in developing markets. Spend on larger ads (300×250 and up) rose by over 250 percent – in sharp contrast with the overall spend on the original app-only banner ad size (320×50), which only increased by 30 percent.

Publishers and app developers who make room for rich media in their apps and on their websites are making 83 percent more money than those who don’t.

While the United States remains on top in terms of mobile ad spending and inventory, the Asia Pacific region is growing rapidly. Spending in China rose by 315 percent, while spending in India grew by 279 percent.

Android apps continue to lead the pack in terms of mobile ad impressions, commanding 32 percent of the overall market. iOS apps come in second with 20 percent, while Windows apps have 5 percent.

Smaato serves up to 6 billion ads each day, across 600 million unique monthly mobile users around the world, and works with 90,000 mobile app developers and publishers. The Global Trends in Mobile Programmatic Report reflects the detailed activity and trends that have developed over the first half of 2015 across Smaato’s broad, global base of publishers, advertisers and users.

“The shift to mobile began with the mobile web – and then apps took over,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato. “Although we can’t say for sure whether we’re looking at a huge comeback of the medium, the fact remains that publishers and advertisers can’t afford to ignore the mobile web. Mobile ad strategies – whether it be the size of ads or the use of rich media – must be created with both app and mobile web usage in mind.

Smaato’s engine blocks more than 30 percent of traffic heading to publisher apps to provide advertisers clean, brand-safe, viewable content, as well as the highest eCPMs for publishers

SAN FRANCISCO – July 21st, 2015 – Smaato, the largest independent, globally-focused mobile ad exchange, today announced a new fraud detection engine powered by artificial intelligence and auto-learning technology to lead the fight in cleaning up the digital advertising world. As a mobile real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace, Smaato allows publishers to integrate clean, high-quality mobile advertising to monetize apps. By preventing both click fraud and fraudulent/low-quality ads, Smaato’s engine creates a fraud-free marketplace to benefit marketers, publishers and app developers alike.

Traffic fraud and fraudulent advertising pose a huge threat to digital marketing’s overall growth. Fraudulent ads (e.g., undesirable banners for gambling or pornography, or ads that automatically redirect users to new pages upon loading) are devastating for publishers, resulting in a poor user experience and a negative reputation. Meanwhile, through click fraud, advertisers lose billions of dollars – $11 billion just last year – due to bot networks that drive fake impressions.

While other platforms use third-party partners to manage the quality of publisher inventory, Smaato has created its own industry-leading internal algorithm for fraud inspection as part of its Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX). This platform prevents against traffic fraud by ensuring that all advertisements are gaining true traffic and are viewed by real individuals by investigating the origin of the traffic, attributing patterns to the bot networks and flagging it as fraud. Smaato’s platform also rejects fraudulent ads, allowing publishers to maintain customer trust and maximize user engagement and revenue.

“Fraudulent advertising is a plague on the mobile advertising industry and as it grows at unprecedented levels, we challenge ourselves to ensure we only have genuine users and clean ads in our system,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato. “It’s crucial that all partners in the ecosystem continue to evolve and innovate around both ad quality and fraudulent traffic, instead of pushing it aside in the name of a short-term increase in business, which allows fraud to proliferate and affect the quality of our ecosystem overall.”

Smaato’s engine uses machine learning technology to analyze big data and extract fraud patterns. Its self-learning engine also detects new fraud patterns in real time, so it can stop new trends as they’re being created. The algorithm includes several inspections for these non-human patterns, along with an around-the-clock global team of personnel dedicated to filtering incoming publisher traffic.

To learn more about Smaato’s clean and safe solutions for publishers, please visit: www.smaato.com.

“Fraudulent advertising is a plague on the mobile advertising industry and as it grows at unprecedented levels, we challenge ourselves to ensure we only have genuine users and clean ads in our system,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO of Smaato.

The Future of Programmatic Mobile Advertising:

SAN FRANCISCO – May 18th, 2015 – Smaato, the largest independent mobile ad exchange that empowers mobile developers and publishers around the world to increase ad revenue, today announced that the company’s CEO, Ragnar Kruse, will be hosting a fireside chat with Microsoft and Dstillery (the leader in marketing technology that enables brands to reach the most relevant prospects) today, in coordination with Internet Week NY. Kruse will be joined by Sharon Harris, global sales strategy lead of Microsoft, and Lauren Moores, vice president of analytics of Dstillery.

Kruse founded Smaato as the first mobile Supply-Side Platform (SSP), and later built the platform out to become a real-time bidding (RTB) ad exchange. In January 2015, Smaato further revolutionized the global mobile programmatic world by launching the Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX), the first mobile-only publisher platform that allows publishers to put all of their advertising sources – RTB, ad networks, direct campaigns and proprietary partnerships – in competition with each other for each individual ad impression. This platform empowers publishers to maximize ROI for all their mobile properties beyond any mobile-first, mobile-only advertising technology previously available.

Today Smaato runs ads from over 10,000 advertisers, including 91 of AdAge’s Top 100 brands, across 80,000 publishers. The platform connects over 150 ad networks and 240 Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and delivers a global reach of over 550 million unique user devices and 150 billion impressions per month.

Programmatic has quickly become the standard in mobile advertising. As a pioneer in this space, Kruse will shed light on programmatic advertising through a publisher-side and mobile-first lens. He will examine the profound effect advances in programmatic RTB has on maximizing ROI for publishers, as well as the importance of prioritizing a mobile-first strategy as the world nears 100 percent mobile penetration.

“Mobile developers and publishers work hard to create apps and mobile properties that engage users and connect them to their products,” said Kruse. “But these app developers don’t specialize in mobile advertising or monetization. That’s where we come in. Our platform allows mobile developers to focus on what they do best and rest assured that they’re maximizing revenue in the most advanced, quality-tested, clean environment without extra legwork.”

Internet Week is an annual event held in New York to discuss technology’s impact on business and culture. The presentation will take place on May 18th from 5-7pm at the State Grill and Bar on the ground floor of the Empire State building.

Indosat, member of Ooredoo Group, and Smaato launch mobile advertising exchange in Indonesia

Barcelona, Spain, (PRNewswire). – March 2, 2015 — Mobile World Congress — Indosat, member of Ooredoo Group, announced today at Mobile World Congress the launch of Indonesia Mobile Exchange (“IMX”), a joint venture digital mobile-first Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Advertising Exchange in partnership with Smaato, a leading global mobile RTB Ad Exchange. Indosat’s existing mobile advertising offering, i-klan, which currently sits within its Digital Services unit, will become part of the joint venture.

IMX’s digital mobile advertising exchange will facilitate a portal that enables both local and global advertisers to connect with leading publishers in Indonesia and provide targeted programmatic advertising to Indonesian consumers. Indonesia is one of the leading digital advertising markets in the world in terms of number of impressions with double digit growth forecast for the foreseeable future1.

“Digital advertising represents an important avenue of new business as we look for opportunities beyond our core services to support our customers’ digital lifestyles,” said Dr Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo. “Currently 25% of our customers actively use mobile content services and Indosat’s partnership with a leading global player like Smaato helps us to build products and capabilities that better serve both business customers and consumers alike. As smartphone use across our footprint increases we intend to extend this approach to the other markets that we operate in.”

IMX will leverage Indosat’s reach in Indonesia through its 55 million mobile customers, Indosat’s business customers, and the global reach of Smaato’s mobile exchange technology through which it is already serving close to 5 billion impressions a month in Indonesia.

“Indonesia, with its large population and high advertising spend, is one of the most important markets for Smaato globally,” said Ragnar Kruse, Smaato’s founder and CEO. “I believe that a combination of our world-class platform and Indosat’s strong in-market reach will help us create effective digital advertising solutions for both local and international brands. It will not only help local online companies to control and maximize the value of their advertising inventories, but also significantly improve returns on investment in advertising.”

IMX will continue to be supported by Indosat’s Digital Services Unit, which also focuses, among other offerings, on mobile commerce and mobile payment solutions. Indosat’s Digital Services Unit is a key player in helping to build one of the world’s largest digital ecosystems in Indonesia. As such partnerships and investments through its start-up incubator and venture capital fund are expected to help IMX access further resources, partners and customers as it scales up in Indonesia.

“Indosat has been passionate about creating a strong digital services ecosystem in Indonesia for many years,” said Alexander Rusli, Indosat’s President Director & CEO. “Mobile advertising, mobile commerce and mobile payments are all critical components of this ecosystem as they revolutionize the way companies interact with consumers. With the Smaato partnership we can help connect smart and meaningful advertising to Indonesian consumers at a scalable size and with faster speed. This will help businesses improve their online reach and impact in a much more cost effective way while also providing customers with more targeted and personal content. We are excited about the opportunities ahead!”

“Indonesia, with its large population and high advertising spend, is one of the most important markets for Smaato globally,” said Ragnar Kruse, Smaato’s founder and CEO. “I believe that a combination of our world-class platform and Indosat’s strong in-market reach will help us create effective digital advertising solutions for both local and international brands. It will not only help local online companies to control and maximize the value of their advertising inventories, but also significantly improve returns on investment in advertising.”

Smaato Honored as “Startup and Innovation Award” Winner

San Francisco, (BUSINESS WIRE). – January 23, 2015 – Smaato, the leading global mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Ad Exchange (SMX) and Sell Side Platform, and the creator of the Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX), a free, full-featured publisher ad server, today announced its selection by the German American Business Association (GABA) as a “Startup and Innovation Award” winner. Smaato is a privately held company founded in 2005. Its global headquarters are in San Francisco, California, and its European office in Hamburg, Germany.

“We are honored to be chosen as one of the ‘Start Up and Innovation Award’ Winners”

GABA, an organization that helps connect German-American business professionals and fosters transatlantic relationships, will be presenting awards for the first time to two German startups that have had significant impact on German-American business. The winners will be honored at the GABA Gala 2015 being held today (Friday, January 23, 2015) at the City Club of San Francisco in the presence of the German Consul General Stefan Schlüter. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to SAP Founder Prof. Dr. h.c.mult. Hasso Plattner.

“Smaato is an excellent example of how German companies can be successful in California with dedication, innovation and great German engineering,” said Caroline Raynaud, Executive Director of GABA.

“We are very proud of our successful combination of Silicon Valley Innovation, German Engineering and Global Vision that has made Smaato the Leading Global Mobile RTB Ad Exchange; we are honored that GABA recognized our work through this prestigious award,” said Ragnar Kruse, Co-Founder & CEO of Smaato.

“We are honored to be chosen as one of the ‘Start Up and Innovation Award’ Winners,” said Petra Vorsteher, Co-Founder and CAO of Smaato. “We value GABA’s platform and activities to promote transatlantic business for its members.”

“We are very proud of our successful combination of Silicon Valley Innovation, German Engineering and Global Vision that has made Smaato the Leading Global Mobile RTB Ad Exchange; we are honored that GABA recognized our work through this prestigious award,” said Ragnar Kruse, Chief Executive Officer, Smaato.

Smaato Announces SPX: The Smaato Publisher Platform

San Francisco, Calif. – January 21, 2015 – Smaato, the leading global mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Ad Exchange (SMX) and Sell Side Platform, announced the worldwide release of The Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX). SPX is a free, full-featured publisher ad server built from the ground up for a mobile-first world. The new platform enables app developers and digital publishers to immediately monetize their properties by delivering target consumers to advertisers, based on real-time data. SPX puts full monetization controls directly in the hands of the publisher and connects them to Smaato’s RTB ad exchange (SMX) and complete ad network mediation stack.

SPX manages all types of direct and indirect buying models and features groundbreaking Dynamic Demand delivery logic. With Dynamic Demand, SPX creates a ‘super auction’ where the best available demand source is evaluated in real time for every impression. Dynamic Demand considers all publisher direct sold/guaranteed campaigns, RTB demand, and ad network demand in order to maximize yield in real time on an impression-by-impression basis.

Ease of Use for Maximum Monetization

SPX features advanced targeting options, easy to use reporting, and a flexible, easy to understand user interface. The new platform is a complete solution for global mobile monetization, connecting publishers to almost 400 global demand sources. SPX gives publishers full pricing and targeting controls, a simple three-step set up process, and built-in optimization automation. And in a bold step for the industry, SPX charges no ad serving fees.

“Advertisers are thirsty for more relevant ways to engage with their consumers who are spending more than 50% of their Internet usage time on mobile devices,” said Ragnar Kruse, Chief Executive Officer, Smaato. “Mobile Application Developers and publishers seek to monetize their applications based on content, context and formats (video, rich-media, native etc.) while keeping control of user experience and content that made them successful in the first place. Smaato’s SPX platform allows for both, providing developers and publishers with the ability to automate advertising revenue and deliver targeted information about products and services that are relevant to their consumers and users.”

“Advertisers are thirsty for more relevant ways to engage with their consumers who are spending more than 50% of their Internet usage time on mobile devices,” said Ragnar Kruse, Chief Executive Officer, Smaato.

Smaato Experiences 140% Growth in Mobile Programmatic Advertising With a Global Reach of 540 Million Unique Visitors Per Month in 2014

San Francisco, (BUSINESS WIRE). – December 23, 2014 – Smaato, the leading global mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) ad exchange (SMX) and Sell Side Platform (SSP), announced significant growth in 2014. Smaato more than doubled its demand side partners (DSPs) to 340+ from 120 in 2013. Smaato’s SMX now connects more than 80,000 publisher partners, 110 Ad Networks, and 230 DSPs.

Across the US, EMEA and APAC regions, Smaato boasts 540 million monthly unique visitors and an average of 120 billion monthly ad impressions — up from 40+ billion monthly ad impressions in 2013. Furthermore, 91 of the top 100 Ad Age brands appear on SMX with Consumer Product Goods as the largest buyer category. As a result, Smaato is the largest global mobile RTB ad exchange.

Smaato’s growth was fueled by increased demand from big brands and advertisers leveraging Smaato’s independent mobile-first platform and SSP for a wide array of inventory. This diverse inventory allowed optimization of their campaigns by leveraging new technology in the mobile programmatic marketplace.

“Big brand advertisers are starting to see beyond the black hole of self-fulfilling, user-generated platforms like Facebook and Twitter (MoPub),” said Ragnar Kruse, Chief Executive Officer of Smaato. “Brands are finding ways to optimize their mobile campaigns with a broader and more diverse supply of inventory that Smaato can offer. Our growing number of publisher partners deliver the most relevant content and audiences. With this data advertisers can better hyper-target in the global mobile market.”

SMAATO KEY GROWTH DRIVERS – 2014:

Diverse Platforms Offer Broader Audience Inventory

Smaato’s owned and operated advertising technology was built for mobile first publishers and application developers. This year, Smaato invested heavily in a supply side-focused platform, branded SPX, which provides supply partners a free mobile ad server with access and controls to Smaato’s Real-Time Bidding exchange (SMX) and its entire mediation network. 2014 heralded the importance of this platform for publishers who needed an independent mobile ad-tech partner not focused on serving their own inventory.

According to Smaato’s Chief Business Officer, Ajitpal Pannu, “SPX allows publishers to manage all direct and indirect campaigns including RTB and mediation, leveraging Smaato’s own Dynamic Demand logic. Globally, larger audiences across 80,000 publishers and a wide selection of applications now provide brands and advertisers more options beyond Facebook and Twitter.”

Anonymous User Data Yielded Higher eCPM on Smaato Exchange (SMX)

Smaato’s accelerated growth was also a result of higher advertising rates commanded from anonymous user data (e.g. location, age and gender data). When this data was made available in a privacy-safe manner to bidding advertisers, it yielded significantly higher eCPMs and fill rates for publishers. Publishers on Smaato’s platform can build, control and offer first-party data segments, similar to what Facebook does. However, unlike Facebook, Smaato does not tap into the same, user-generated content.

Mobile Advertising Spending Follows Exponential Growth in Smartphones

Smaato’s growth continues to be fueled by the install base of smartphones in the global market where 1 billion devices are projected to be added each year for the next three to four years. Recent eMarketer and Gartner studies predict that global mobile ad spending is on pace to rise another 75% to $31.5 billion this year. Consumers now spend 32% more time on mobile than on desktop. Aligned with that growth, the Smaato RTB exchange has experienced 466% growth YOY in RTB and 140% growth in RTB spending, excluding Q4 numbers. Marketers and advertisers are taking heed of the capacity of mobile programmatic advertising’s impact. Big brands, particularly those in the CPG buyer category, have paid attention to this trend. From Q2 2014 onward, CPG has been the largest spend category of RTB advertisers on the SMX exchange, according to data from Smaato’s RTB Insights Report.

“Brands are finding ways to optimize their mobile campaigns with a broader and more diverse supply of inventory that Smaato can offer. Our growing number of publisher partners deliver the most relevant content and audiences. With this data advertisers can better hyper-target in the global mobile market.”

Mobile is the New Desktop in Programmatic Advertising with Brands Driving the Spend, According to Smaato RTB Insights Report

Q3 2014 Ad Spend Accelerates in CPG and Automotive

San Francisco, Calif. – November 6, 2014 – Smaato, the leading global mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) ad exchange (SMX) and Supply Side Platform (SSP), today released its global mobile RTB Insights Report for Q3 2014. The report is an in-depth analysis of worldwide exchange data, auctions, bids and impressions across Smaato’s SMX platform, which is globally connected to 337+ Demand Partners (138+ Ad Networks and 199+ Demand Side Platforms and Trading Desks) and boasts 91 of the Top 100 Ad Age Brands bidding on Smaato’s ad exchange. Smaato’s Q3 Insights highlight the top global advertising regions and industry sectors, with indicators on the growing deployment of data in mobile advertising worldwide and the growth of mobile RTB spending, compared to this same time last year.

According to Smaato SMX data, mobile programmatic spending has seen phenomenal growth over the last year, with programmatic spend on SMX growing by over 140% from Q3 2013. Based on this growth and according to projections from eMarketer, mobile programmatic spending is projected to surpass desktop programmatic advertising spend next year.

The Consumer Products and Goods (CPG) category continued to dominate with 22% of the advertising spend in Q3 2014 – this is in line with last quarter’s trend with CPG hitting 25% in Q2 2014.

However, Automotive –which previously didn’t make a blip on the SMX map– contributed to 6% of the advertising spend in Q3 2014, making it the upcoming publisher category to watch in the year to come with the highest jump in number of impressions this time around.

“Whether it’s CPG or Automotive, this many categories vying for the top spot serves as proof that brand spending on mobile RTB advertising is here to stay,” said Smaato CEO Ragnar Kruse.

Real-Time Bidding is Making Inroads in Emerging Markets

While the mature advertising markets of the US, Canada, and UK contribute to 72% of the total RTB advertising spend in Smaato’s SMX platform, the data in Smaato’s report shows that Real-Time Bidding adoption in mobile advertising is picking up pace in emerging markets. There has been a massive growth in both the number of RTB impressions and RTB advertising spend in countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia. In the Americas, Argentina at 991% saw the biggest increase in RTB impressions, as well as RTB spend at 4000%. In EMEA, Russia had the highest growth in RTB impressions at 1305%, while South Africa saw the biggest increase in spend at 472%. In APAC, Thailand saw the biggest increase in the number of RTB impressions at 313%, while Indonesia had the biggest increase in RTB spend at 1809%, further validating the advertiser’s need for first-party data in emerging mobile advertising markets.

Advertisers Value Anonymized User Data, not just 3rd-party Data

Most importantly, Smaato’s platform is a combination of an ad server, an RTB and exchange and an SSP. When app developers and mobile publishers provide user data like location, age, gender in a privacy-safe manner to bidding advertisers in SMX, the advertisers are willing to buy more impressions and pay more per impression, resulting in higher eCPMs and fill rates. The RTB Insights report reveals up to a 100% increase in eCPMs and fill rates when app developers pass first-party data and take control of building their own first-party segments of data in Smaato’s publisher platform, similar to what has been successful for Facebook as a publisher.

“Our Q3 data quantifies the trend in mobile ad spend soaring worldwide,” said Kruse. “The most successful advertisers are proving to be those who can harness and deploy ad spending data, whether it’s targeting certain categories or regions.”

During the 2014 ad:tech New York conference on November 6, 2014, Smaato will be presenting an analysis of RTB trends including those in this latest Insights report.

Press Coverage

Mobile ad spending has increased almost 45% during the last year compared to 2015. That’s according to mobile publisher and app developer platform Smaato, which has analysed billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange to find out what the Global Trends in Mobile Advertising are for Q4 2016.

Mobile ad spending has increased almost 45% during the last year compared to 2015. That’s according to mobile publisher and app developer platform Smaato, which has analysed billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange to find out what the Global Trends in Mobile Advertising are for Q4 2016.

Smaato’s recent release of their Q3 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report brought some interesting statistics to light, in particular the growth of in-app advertising versus its mobile web counterpart. ExchangeWire speak exclusively with Ragnar Kruse, co-founder and CEO, Smaato about what these statistics indicate in the changing shape of mobile advertising.

Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group on Wednesday said it completed its acquisition of global real-time mobile advertising platform Smaato Inc. and Smaato Holding AG for $148 million. The acquisition was secured through a mergers and acquisition fund developed by one of Spearhead’s subsidiaries.

Smaato, a global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, on Thursday said it’s adding support for two video ad formats: outstream and rewarded video. The company is looking to position itself as an integrated, “one-stop shop” for all programmatic video ad solutions. Smaato said this will enable mobile publishers and advertisers to increase engagement and revenue through diversified video inventory.

MAW broke the news this week that Smaato, a global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, is pushing ahead with what it calls a major expansion of its mobile monetization solutions for the demand side of the mobile advertising ecosystem. “Launching today, the Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) empowers demand partners to optimize their mobile advertising traffic with a robust suite of traffic targeting tools providing precision, control and flexibility,” MAW reports. “SDX significantly reduces operational waste for demand partners across mobile advertising campaigns.”

Smaato, a mobile ad platform, announced some expansions of its demand-side platform (DSP) capabilities today, with a new demand platform that allows partners to optimize their mobile ad traffic. The Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) is designed to reduce operational waste for demand partners across mobile ad campaigns. Partners can utilize targeting and QPS (query per second) throttling tools that give them granular control over what kind of traffic they receive. Beyond country-level targeting, inventory can be ramped up based on ad format, device type, connection type and in-app versus mobile Web. They will also be able to filter out or target publishers based on previous campaign performance.

Ahead of the long holiday weekend, Smaato released its latest quarterly global trends in mobile advertising report. According to the report summary from MAW, mobile video ads are now clearly the most effective and best forming ad formats in the mobile ad business today. That assessment is the result of Smaato’s analysis of data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of this week.“The report shows strong growth for mobile video advertisements, delivering 11 times higher eCPMs for publishers – a 1,042 percent uplift compared to any other ad format,” Smaato is quoted by MAW.

Smaato has released its Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report which provides insights from data taken from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of 2016. One of the top insights from the report is that China saw an incredible +1,198% rise in ad spending.

Smaato, the leading global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, has released its Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report. To identify the trends, Smaato analyzed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of 2016.

Mobile is undoubtedly one of the core topics in advertising this year. Ad spending continues to show some impressive growth, jumping 89% from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016. That’s according to a new report from mobile publisher and app developer advertising platform, Smaato, which identifies the key trends in mobile. Based on billions of mobile ad impressions served through its exchange, the Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising study also finds that the Americas are showing the highest growth in mobile at 123% compared to 65% for APAC and 32% EMEA. Overall, mobile ad spend now represents a $22bn opportunity in the US.

Smaato is out with its latest quarterly global trends in mobile advertising report, the findings of which were shared with MAW on Thursday. According to the research presented by the ad company, mobile video ads remain the most effective and best forming ad formats in the mobile space today. That assessment is the result of Smaato’s analysis of data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of this week.

Smaato, the global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, has released its Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report. To identify the trends, Smaato analysed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of 2016. The report shows strong growth for mobile video advertisements, delivering 11 times higher eCPMs (effective cost per thousand impressions) for publishers – a 1,042% uplift compared to any other ad format. Mobile video ads drive higher revenue when shown in-app versus in the mobile web, with iOS apps delivering almost 3x higher eCPMs over the mobile web.

Video ads deliver better results than any other mobile ad format. That cheery finding comes from the Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report issued today by mobile ad platform Smaato. To arrive at its finding, Smaato compared the eCPMs of ads on its platform. (eCPM means “effective cost per thousand,” and is a ratio used to compare ad units with differing numbers of impressions.) It found that the eCPM for mobile video ads increased by 27.9 percent from Q4 2015 to Q1 2016, and was 11 times higher than that for text and display ads. The upshot, the report says, is that advertisers use video to reach an engaged audience, and publishers are benefiting.

Mobile advertising requires striking what can seem like an impossible balance: attracting users’ attention without interrupting whatever else they are doing. The trick is to be interruptive through engaging, well-placed advertising without interrupting.

Mobile advertising company Smaato is set to become the latest technology startup to be acquired by Chinese investors, after the San Francisco firm announced that Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group, an offline marketing organization, has agreed to buy it for $148 million.

Smaato, a San Francisco-based mobile ad tech company, has been acquired by Chinese marketing firm Spearhead for $148 million. Smaato is a mobile supply-side platform that allows mobile developers and publishers to connect their advertising inventory to multiple ad exchanges and demand-side platforms in order to monetize their apps.

Another day, another acquisition of a mobile company by a Chinese conglomerate. Publisher-focused mobile ad exchange Smaato will be snapped up by (this is a mouthful) Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group, a Beijing-based offline marketing service provider.

Today Smaato, a global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, announced a major enhancement to its SPX publisher platform. For the first time, mobile publishers and app developers using Smaato to monetize their apps and mobile websites can access the platform through an easy-to-use API.

Smaato, the real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers, has rolled out a new enhancement to its SPX publisher platform that combines mobile, native and programmatic features. Now, mobile publishers and developers will be able to monetise their products and sites through a simplified API.

Smaato has released updates to its SPX publisher platform adding a new management API to better facilitate mobile publishers and app developers ability to access and use Smaato to monetize their apps and mobile websites.

Apple is the world’s most valuable company — no other company even comes close. That shouldn’t be surprising, as the Silicon Valley-based company has created an unparalleled hardware culture that more resembles a lifestyle than a brand. Apple is potentially worth more than a trillion dollars, and has a staggering $155 billion “war chest” stashed for a rainy day — should the rain ever come.

Advertising platform Smaato has released its Q4 2015 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report, which revealed mobile ad spending in the U.S. increased 174 percent year-over-year, from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015. In addition, while the U.S. is still the most valuable ad market in the world, Smaato found China experienced the largest growth in mobile ad spending in Q4 2015, with a 1,246 percent increase.

Smaato is delighted to be included in the AlwaysOn Top 100 as a high-growth mobile advertising leader. ​Smaato was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.​ ​Credit ​for this award ​goes to our outstanding team of ad tech professionals who ​​help our customers succeed every day.​​

In the world of online advertising, 2012 could probably have been called the “year of mobile.” It had been about to happen, we’d been told, for several years. Sure, mobile advertising existed before this, but in this period something palpable changed. It could no doubt have been measured in spend and in budgets allocated to mobile, yet there was also an underlying attitude change.

As the third quarter of 2015 was winding to a close this past September, you couldn’t throw a rock at a laptop without hitting a story about ad blocking, the purported scourge of modern media and the bane of publishers everywhere.

SDK mediation is still a major headache for developers. “We constantly hear from publishers that they want full control of their inventory – they don’t want to send their inventory into a black box,” said Ajitpal Pannu…

A not-so-new but formidable obstacle to the growth of the mobile advertising market is click fraud. Its emergence has cost marketers over USD 11 billion in 2014, with a strong focus on the video marketplace.

With all the hullabaloo around mobile ad blocking cresting in recent weeks, it’s been interesting to watch fingers pointing and flying in all directions. Consumers don’t understand how content stays free.

One of the biggest problems within ad tech is our almost unconscious love of making the simple complicated. If we can make a concept (not the solution, just the concept) appear really complicated, our eventual half-solutions appear really smart…

Global connectivity has reached the point where a kid can develop a mobile game in his garage in Kansas, release that game into the various app stores of the world, and have downloads from Portugal to the Philippines by the end of his evening.

There’s a great deal of intuitive and counter-intuitive intelligence lurking in the dark corners of data warehouses — if only you’re brave enough to look. We recently took a deep dive into the billions upon billions of mobile ad impressions that ran across our Exchange…

26. Petra Vorsteher, chief alliances officer and co-founder of Smaato. Vorsteher is a board member at German trade organization Hamburg@work, is a member of the global leadership team at Women In Wireless, and is the co-chair for mobile at the German American Business Association in Silicon Valley.

Smaato is providing developers with new app monetization tools as the company has extended the functionality of its SPX real-time advertising publisher platform to include a native advertising builder and private marketplace functionality.

In recent years, mobile advertising saw its growing popularity attracting cross-industry players, including Mobile Network Operators(MNOs), as revenues in this segment continue to rise and mobile content and mediums of communications over mobile channels continue to proliferate.

Both the mobile web and apps are thriving, as opposed to canceling each other out, according to mobile ad exchange platform Smaato, whose global trends report looked into consumer usage and spending on smartphones during the first half of 2015.

In recent years, mobile advertising saw its growing popularity attracting cross-industry players, including Mobile Network Operators(MNOs), as revenues in this segment continue to rise and mobile content and mediums of communications over mobile channels continue to proliferate.

With traffic and ad fraud the bane of the digital ad industry, another ad platform is taking steps to fight back. Today, San Francisco-based Smaato announces the addition of an automated fraud detection engine to its publisher-oriented mobile ad platform, exchange, and server. This new automation, CEO Ragnar Kruse told me, uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to find patterns in authentic and fake traffic, so it can tell the difference.

Welcome back to our Industry Exposed series! In this edition, we have an interview with Ragnar Kruse, the CEO and Co-Founder of Smaato, on how they are trying to consolidate the supply ecosystem through their ‘super auction’ model, as well as how markets like China will blow the US out of the water for smartphone penetration and app usage.

While keen to tap mobile devices to reach their audience, marketers in Asia-Pacific are still struggling to accurately measure the actual returns from their mobile campaigns. In this industry byliner, Smaato’s Asia-Pacific managing director Malcolm Wong discusses the challenges of addressing a deeply fragmented region and explains why first-party data is necessary for mobile campaigns.

As ad tech takes increasing precedence on a global scale, Singapore’s government investment bodies are actively luring global players. The investment arm of the Economic Development Board EDBI has said that it sees digital marketing as an area with high growth potential. “Our aim is to catalyse digital innovation, market growth and value creation in the transformation of Singapore industries as well as seed new growth industries,” said CEO & president of EDBI Chu Swee Yeok.

Smaato, a company that offers advertising tools for mobile publishers and developers, just launched the Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX), an ad server for mobile publishers. The San Francisco-based company claims it will help publishers and developers monetize their apps and maximize their mobile advertising fill rates and the effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPMs).